KARCIUS is an instrumental group aiming at playing a mix of progressive
rock and fusion jazz music. Four instrumentalists created the band at
spring 2001: Dominique Blouin on bass, Thomas Brodeur on drums, Simon
L’Espérance on guitars and Mingan Sauriol on keyboards. The group
objective is to develop different musical ideas and explore styles to
generate a surprising and diversified music. The improvisation and
written music stand side by side generating a unique and particular
musical concept. KARCIUS invites you in its universe of rhythms,
colours, images, emotions and ambiances.

KARCIUS exceptionnal musicians devotes unceasing work and true passion to their art.

Missed that release, ordered it right away now. Thanks for the reminder, Assaf!

Hope you'll like it (I think you will). Am listening to it now, and the two tracks Incident and Purple King are simply Awesome!!! Beauty and fabulous Spanish falvour in the first and power and subtle rawness in the second.

Listened to it again today, this is awesome! They've changed from their first album that's for sure. This one presents the different "faces" of the band, as they play different styles in each track. All of them very enjoyable and well performed.

Always restlessly approaching their interests in an eclectic sort of prog rock that mixes jazz-rock,
psychedelia, fusion and symphonic textures, the guys of Karcius have released yet another gem in
their repertoire by the end of 2008: “Episodes” is a marvelous exhibition of how much creatity these
guys carry in their minds and souls in order o keep their artistic proposal fresh and renewed. As
always, this band’s sonic framework is loose enough as to fluidly incorporate sources of musical power
that somehow relate their essence to the standards of prog-metal. You can also notice some bizarre
progressions and ornaments that feel quite close to the challenging pace of avant-prog. This album
doesn’t fall short concerning these assets, but as I said before, Karcius does not replicate
itself. “Episodes” comprises some new explorations related to space-rock, which in turn serves as a
motive to emphasize the psychedelic factor that had already been present in preceding albums. The
three sections of ‘Elements’ open up the album in a most revealing fashion. ‘Submersion’, the
autonomous title of the first section, openly flirts with he dense flow of your regular spacey psychedelic
rock. At first, Suriol’s piano keeps things on a level of dreamy majesty, but it is only when l?
Esperánce’s lead guitar comes to the fore that the track meets its main body and crucial development.
Things pretty much get heavy-prog, featuring an incendiary guitar lead augmented by an ominous choir
mellotron. The opening motif then returns, partially capturing the increased energy. The last two
minutes get very spacey, with a bass guitar riff that paves the way for the emergence of ‘Sol’, the
second section. This one is more celebratory, elaborating a jazz-funk groove that might as well remind
us of Weather Report-meets-Brand-X. Near the end, things get hardened, linked to the current era of
jazz-rock. ‘Combustion’, the suite’s third section, benefits from this particularly explicit momentum, with
a first part that combines metallish riffs and Floydian environments: there is something grayish, subtly
sinister about it. After the 6 minute mark, things get tighter up to the point of arriving at LTE-like
territory. The epic conclusion provides a reprise of the bridge between sections 1 and 2. This suite has
been simply lovely, a manifestation of the album’s main virtues as a whole. ‘Incident’ is more patently
fusion-oriented, clearly influenced by good old Return to Forever (mostly due to the Flamenco-like
atmospheres), but there is also that aura of musical extravagance that sounds closer to bands such as
The Lonely Bears. The piano sonata entitled ‘Levant’ is only 2 ½ minutes long, but that’s OK since its
Gershwin moods are developed in a most efficient manner. A lovely piece, indeed. In this way, the
listener is prepared to listen to ‘Purple King’, a solid rocker in which the lead guitarist seems o pay
homage to Allan Holdsworth and Jeff Beck. The progressive ornaments that go settling in allow the
band to teach a lesson of prog metal even if it is not a prog metal group. There is also an organ solo
very worthy of a special mention, in which we find traces of Lord’s exquisiteness and Emerson’s
vibration. ‘Purple King’ can be fairly regarded as the album’s zenith. ‘Racine’ occupies the album’s last
9– minutes. This one is very much like Ozric Tentacles: starting with a white reggae vibe, later on the
track shifts towards a space-rock momentum augmented with fusion touches. This is very similar to
Ozric Tentacles at their most sophisticated. Ultimately, the first motive is reinstated in order to provide
a cosmic relaxation with agile spacey textures. All in all, this albums doesn’t equal the robustness of
2kaleidoscope”, but it is not to say that this album is soft or lacking stamina. It has lots of stamina,
indeed, but the band has put it in a more subtle level. Karcius still rules!

Kind of like the darkness of their previous albums, felt this one was much more lighter... still good though.

I personally would not call their previous efforts dark, but more aggressive, yes. Here they have definitely gone on a more epic note (the first 3 linked tracks), mellow note (Incident), still preserving some of their former power (Purple King) and a light jazzy note (the album closing track).

A really good thing about these guys is that they're pretty young right now and still have a long way to go. All of their albums until now were great and I'm pretty sure they'll come up with a lot of other good material in the future. I talked to the bassist the other day and they're already working on new music.

You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot create polls in this forumYou cannot vote in polls in this forum